In Alessandro Palazzo & Anna Rodolfi (eds.),
Micrologus Library. Firenze FI, Italia: pp. 235-255 (
2020)
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Abstract
In the historiographical tradition on the medieval theories of future
contingents, William of Ockham’s position is considered as the standard
view in the fourteenth century debates on prophecies. If it is indisputable
that the theory exposed in the Tractatus de predestinatione et de
praescientia Dei respectu futurorum contingentium had a pivotal role in the
discussions about divine foreknowledge and its relation to human will,
the analysis of some positions of the Oxonian context, such as those of
Walter Chatton and Richard Kilvington, shows how the reference to
the Ockhamist theory was frequently critical and not necessarily related
to a redefinition of the epistemological statute of prophecy and broadly
of science, as it is in Ockham’s theology. In particular, Chatton’s theory
of prophetic assent and Kilvington’s use of the measurements languages
in prophecies are interesting cases that, while assuming the established
Ockhamist linguistic approach, also retrieve crucial elements from the
theological tradition about prophecies.